Revenue Sharing with Members

Can I give members an ad block

[jdancing]

I have a site with some preferred members and thought it would be cool to give them a spot on their pages where they could enter their adsense ID and then would get any revenue direct from Adsense from clicks on their adsense block.

So the same page would include adsense ads from me in one spot and from the preferred member in another spot. This seems to be the most fair way to do revenue sharing as members would truly get paid what they earn.

Is this allowed by Google Adsense? I don't see why it wouldn't be but better safe than sorry.

[esllou]

this might be worth reading:

[code.google.com...]

[jdancing]

Unfortunately this site is not at 100K of pageviews a day yet so the API rev share option is out. I am thinking of allowing certain members to enter their Google adsense code into their dashboard on my site and it would replace my ads with theirs ads on their pages.

If Google is ok with API revenue sharing I guess they would be ok with my workaround method. Anyone know for sure or how I can find out?

[farmboy]

Is this allowed by Google Adsense? I don't see why it wouldn't be but better safe than sorry.

I think it's a bad idea, regardless of whether Google would allow it. You're creating a situation where one or more of your "members" are going to do something to get you kicked out of AdSense. The only question is how soon will it happen.

FarmBoy

[tangor]

Your eggs are already in one basket. Want to trust the other basket carriers to be as careful as you are?

[jdancing]

Members getting me in trouble for adsense violations would not be possible.

So is allowing certain members to enter their Google adsense code into their dashboard on my site and it would replace my ads with theirs ads on their pages?

[dataguy]

I've debated this specific idea literally for years. You'll want to do your own research, but here's what I've encountered so far:

At two different "meet the engineers" events, I spoke with AdSense engineers and asked them if it was ok for me to allow my users to put their ads on my site. Each time I received the same response. They said I could do it as long as my users entered the complete ad code (not just the pub id) and that there was never ads from two difference adwords accounts displayed on the same page at the same time. One Googler even offered the names of a few sites that were allowing revenue share in this manner.

When I pressed them on the fact that the AdSense TOS requires that the AdSense account holder owns the web site on which the ads are displayed, they said that I should contact my AdSense rep to get an official response. I did, and my rep said the same thing that the Googler's told me.

Even still, I have a hard time building a business model which breaks the official TOS of the company which provides the majority of my ad revenue, so I have not yet tried it.

Hope this helps.

[jdancing]

@dataguy thanks for the response. Here is what I gather so far:

* Adsense TOS states adsense can only be placed on pages owned by the adsense publisher.

* People inside Google say it is ok to have adsense on a site you don't own as long as only one publishers ads are displayed on a page at the same time.
- Instead of of my plan on giving preferred members 1 out of 3 blocks per page I would need to give them only their ads on one out of three page views.

* Some sites are already doing this like d******point ?

* Even though Google allows it, it is a risk because it is not allowed in Adsense TOS.
- I think it is all about revenue, and if this increases Google revenue without scamming the advertisers then Google will look the other way.

Anyone else have any experience with revenue sharing via Google AdSense? I am surprised this is such a murky area.

[jdancing]

I have continued to research this and it seems running adsense for 2 publishers on the same page is allowed:

Sharing your ad space

A number of publishers have asked us if it's acceptable to place multiple publishers' ad code on the same page or site. Often they'll run into this issue when two AdSense publishers manage a site together and both want to display their ads, or if a site owner hosts content and ads from other publishers on the same page as their own.

The answer is that yes, we do allow this.

[BigDave]

I've been doing revenue sharing on a couple sites for years. As previously stated, you need to rotate publisher IDs instead of mixing IDs on a page.

I've heard the doom and gloom predictions about having your account pulled if some other publisher violates the TOS, but no one ever seems to come up with an example of this actually happening.

[jdancing]

Rotating publisher's ID's on a page used to be the unwritten rule, however, now you can mix ID's on a single page per the Google adsense blog.

[adsense.blogspot.com...]

[Future]

Revenue Sharing with Members is not always a good idea.
I have seen owners get there sites banned, because of content theft from members who were allowed sharing.

Not sure if rules are changed though.

[jdancing]

Revenue Sharing with Members is not always a good idea.
I have seen owners get there sites banned, because of content theft from members who were allowed sharing.

Wouldn't any site that accepts content from members have the same risk?

[dataguy]

Hey jd, you've inspired me. I'm about a week away from launching ad sharing on a few of my sites.

How about you? Have you added this ability to your site? I'd love to compare notes.

[jdancing]

I bright idea got delayed by the earlier answers to my question that seemed to indicate that one page could not have 2 different publisher's Adsense code.

Now that I verified it is allowable to share google adsense blocks with members on the same page I can move forward with the implementation of brainstorm.

I'll PM you when I have some results to share.

[londrum]

i don't get how you can increase your own profit by diluting the number of your own ads.

i understand how you can expect to get more traffic -- because more people will be tempted to stick around your site because there will now be something in it for them (their own ads). but surely that is only going to tempt one person at a time -- the people who actually sign up. it's not going to tempt anyone else.

all this extra traffic that you are going to get are just the people who sign up -- and they are the exact same people who will not be allowed to click the ads. (and not just their own ads... now they won't be able to click ANY of the ads on your site, just in case it happens to be theirs)

if you're just doing it as a reward thing, then that's fair enough. but seeing as you don't get much else out of it and you might even land yourself with some fake clicking problems, then it hardly seems worth it to me.

[dataguy]

Valid questions, londrum, and I'm sure there are different answers for different situations. For me, I'm already making enough money off of ads that I can afford to give some back to the members who have given me the free content which has allowed me to make this money.

all this extra traffic that you are going to get are just the people who sign up -- and they are the exact same people who will not be allowed to click the ads.

I get about 500 times more random visitors (50,000%) than I do members in a given day. If half of the impressions go to my members, I'm still doing well. Very well.

[Erku]

Does anyone know?

Do you get premium ads or permium advertisers if you are eligible for [code.google.com...] ?